Jonathan Mills and colleagues discuss findings from an audit of the referral and transfer of children with learning disabilities to services for adults

The movement of adolescents with learning disabilities from children’s to adult services can sometimes be unsatisfactory, causing upset for the young people involved and raising costs for the NHS. This article discusses an examination of the casenotes of young people referred from children’s to adult learning disability services in an NHS mental health trust in Nottinghamshire over an eight-month period. It reviews the ages of clients at referral and transfer, and the specialties of referring organisations, and discusses the potential reasons why transfers can fail.